War

The other day in school, two Vietnam veterans came and talked to our history class. They shared their stories and experiences, and answered every question that was asked, which is surprising. If I was a veteran, and I had these experiences, I would be hesitant to bring them up because they would probably bring back not very good memories. But they didn’t just share experiences, one veteran shared his opinion on war, which kind of caught me off guard.

This Vietnam veteran was against war and supported ending the war that we are currently engaged in. Normally when I think of veterans, I think of them as gung-ho and a little out there. But this veteran was not. If I saw him walking down the street, I would think he was just a regular guy. So when he said he supported ending the war, my first reaction was “I wonder if other veterans feel the same way as him?” It surprised me when he dealt out his opinion, but after thinking about it for a little while, I can see why he feels this way. I think that many veterans see what war is really like, the see the death and destruction, and I think that they realize that war is a bad thing. I think they realize that war does not solve the problems that people want solved, war does not fix things that are broken, war only breaks them more. I think to understand war, you have to be part of one. Not as a politician or observer, but as a solider in combat. To see what war really does, I think you have to participate and feel the feeling of the people who carry out the war, not the people who decide what to do in the war. I think that if the United States got into a major war right now (I’m not saying we are not in one, I’m just saying if we got into one that actually got peoples attention), I would have felt more comfortable with McCain as president. Nothing against Obama, but McCain was in the Vietnam War, he fought and was captured and he knows what war is like. He knows what would be right, and what wouldn’t.

Overall, I think I’m trying to say that war is not good. I support our troops and I have the greatest respect for soldiers, but I just think it is wrong to put them in this kind of compromising situation. I think that war doesn’t solve problems, and I think that politicians have some kind of mental block against this.

The New Mr. President

I don’t know why I’ve waited this long, but I am going to talk about the new president of the United States of America. Barack Obama along with running mate Joe Biden, beat out the old guy and his Barbie doll.

I have been for Barack since the very beginning. If I was old enough, I would have caucused for him, and I am relieved to see that it is finally over, with him coming out on top. I think he is a good guy, with his morals, ideas, and character in the right place. I respect his opinion, even though I may not agree with it all the time (isn’t that the whole point of your own opinion, to think what you want and not what other people tell you to think?). I think he will do an excellent job in the white house, started to get the economy and debt on the right track, and start to pull the troops out of places they should not have been in the first place. He may not live up to all the expectations set for him, which is fine, at least he wont lie to the people and run the country into the ground like somebody else…

Now, I have said all along that whoever wins will do a far better job then our current president has done. I even felt that John McCain would do better. People said that they feared he would just be an extension of the Bush administration, and I agree somewhat, he is a republican. But I do believe he is smarter and has dealt with issues in a mature manor before, so he wouldn’t have been bad.

When John McCain selected Sara Palin to be his running mate, I thought that wasn’t a bad idea, he was just trying to get the woman vote. But after a couple of weeks, and the vice-presidential debate, I was dumbfounded. First, because they had actually found somebody that would be a WORSE president (if anything happened to John, like, maybe passing of old age) than Bush. She doesn’t speak in complete sentences, talks in a condescending, smug voice, and hasn’t answered a question that was asked directly to her, ever. Second, because of how the campaign tried to build her up. They basically set her up to fail. They tried to tell the American people she was an old, experienced maverick, just like John McCain. I’m sorry, but you don’t go from being the governor of Alaska for a couple of years, to an experienced political leader overnight. That was my biggest fear about this election, Sara Palin. If McCain had won, and something happened to him and Palin took office, I would have moved to Canada. This is my serious face. I’m not joking. Palin in office is more scary then anything ever in the history of the world, even the comet that destroyed all the dinosaurs.